Really Cool Stuff about Millard Fillmore
1. His first name is actually his mother’s maiden name.
2. The Antimason Party was the first political party to use a national nominating convention to determine their choice for the office of President of the United States. “ Its [the Antimason Party’s] righteous appeal to masses of voters, its highly organized committee system topped by a state central committee, its state-wide conventions and prompt inauguration of a national nominating convention (the first in America’s history), its conscious effort at propaganda—all represented the new departure” (p. 27).
3. Millard became a major figure in the city of Buffalo and with his prestige, he pressed for social and educational reform. Partly due to his endeavors, Buffalo became the first city in New York state to offer free elementary schools. “In 1839 the common council accepted the recommended policy, and as a result Buffalo claimed the distinction of being the state’s first community to establish free, tax-supported elementary schools” (p. 55).
4. While in Buffalo, Millard teamed up with fellow lawyers, Nathan Hall and Solomon Haven, to establish a very preeminent firm. In fact, this very law firm would produce two Presidents of the United States. “In turn, when one of its students, Grover Cleveland, took his oath of office as President of the United States, its proud members needed no legerdemain to establish the fact that their law office had the unique distinction of giving the nation two of its Presidents” (p. 55-6).
5. Millard Fillmore nearly annexed the Hawaiian Islands due to French aggression against them. “Encouraged by American citizens who filled his [the Hawaiian king’s] ears with advice, the native ruler proposed a secret annexation which would be valid only if French hostility proved true” (p. 311). However, Fillmore, who hated secrecy, shied away from this shady deal. “Fillmore and Webster [Secretary of State] deemed the pear should not be shaken into the American lap under cover of darkness” (p. 312).
6. During Millard’s presidency, he instructed Commodore Perry to open Japan with a show of force. With seven black warships in July of 1853, Perry entered the Bay of Yedo and handed the president’s message to the shogun there. Within weeks a treaty was signed allowing trade between the two nations. “Fillmore’s administration had prepared the ground for sweeping changes in the relations between the East and the West, and his highway to the Orient was taking shape” (p. 317).
7. While Millard toured England after his retirement, the University of Oxford wished to bestow an honorary degree on him. However, Millard declined to accept it, remembering the embarrassment incumbent upon Andrew Jackson when Jackson had accepted a degree from Harvard. “He [Fillmore] was thinking of Major Jack Downing’s description of Jackson receiving a similar honor from Harvard University, on which occasion the old here—according to the humorist—concluded his remarks by shouting in tones of thunder all the Latin he knew: ‘E pluribus unum! Sine qua non! Multum in parvo! Quid pro quo! Ne plus ultra’” (p. 399)! Fillmore explained himself thus. “I had not the advantage of a classical education and no man should, in my judgment, accept a degree he cannot read” (p. 398).
I actually quite liked this rendition of Millard Fillmore. The author has the distinct advantage of unchartered territory in that no one really knows anything much about this guy so everything he writes is groundbreaking information in a sense. Due to his exuberant and sometimes cheesy literary style, you can also tell that the author, Robert Rayback, is genuinely interested in the 13th president. For example, this sentence about Abigail and Millard made me giggle just a little. “In turn, his six feet of sturdy manhood aroused her admiration, while his dignified bearing forecast a promising future” (p. 7). While Millard might not be the most interesting of our presidents, Rayback’s tone gives him all the attention he deserves.
Actually, I should not have been as surprised as I was to discover that this book was less of a biography of Millard Fillmore but more of a history of the Whig Party (and, by extension, the Antimasons and the Know Nothings). Rayback warned me in the prologue that “since knowing the genesis of a book is an aid to the reader, I must admit that curiosity about the Whig Party, rather than the admiration of Fillmore, started me on the research that led to this biography” (p. viii). He then goes on to confess that “my own probing soon suggested that a biography of Millard Fillmore could be used to continue the re-examination of the Whig party” (p. viii).
In another sense, this book is as much a testament to the rabid political life of antebellum New York as anything else. It is an in-depth analysis of the small-town politics of Buffalo and then the sweeping rivalries within the Whig party throughout the entire state. If you ever wanted to know this much about behind-the-scenes political intrigue in a single US state then read on. Not even in the Van Buren book (and he was from New York, remember?) was there this much carefully-prepared information on the scheming minds behind the Whig meltdown of 1852.
Speaking of slavery, I have to admit that I am dying to get to the Civil War. Not because I am a huge fan of it per se, but because the anticipation is simply killing me! In these most recent biographies, slavery is such an issue and tempers are running so high that I can’t help but think ahead to its zenith when we devolve into killing each other and the war begins. I can’t remember what exact instance sparks the war (I know it involves Lincoln and maybe Fort Sumter but that’s really it) but I do know that it’s coming up soon and I’m excited. All this tension is driving me crazy! Can you imagine living during this time and knowing that something, something, had to go down soon?
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